Is It Worth It to Make Pie Crust, Chocolate Chip Cookies,
Pancakes, Hummus or Chicken Broth from Scratch?

June 18, 2012 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Recipe.com
has done something every cook has wondered about at some time or
another: evaluated the cost, effort, and taste payoff of making recipes
from scratch vs. buying the food already prepared. Their conclusion:
It’s a tradeoff, and it all depends on what’s important to you.

“Our food editors looked at recipes that seem to generate the most
debate, like pie crust from scratch and chocolate chip cookies from
scratch,” said Cheryl Brown, Editorial Director for Recipe.com. “They
added up the cost of making the recipes from scratch – even with the
discounts from coupons and store specials – added up the time involved,
and then evaluated the final taste differences. We don’t anyone to feel
guilty, no matter what they choose—we just wanted to understand the
tradeoffs. Some people would never make their own chicken broth, for
example, because it’s too labor intensive; others swear it’s no big deal
to make broth from scratch and wouldn’t touch the stuff out of a can.”

The answer to pie
crust: buy it vs. make it was a no brainer for the Recipe.com
editors. They absolutely are in favor of making it. Cost-wise it’s about
half the price of store-bought crust, and there’s not much effort
involved, especially if you have a food processor. As for taste, no
matter where you stand in the overall debate, most people agree that you
can’t beat the taste of a homemade pie crust.

Whether to buy
or make chocolate chip cookies was more debatable. The cost of
homemade cookies was a bit more than store-bought (butter and chocolate
chips aren’t cheap); and the level of effort a toss-up. The taste of the
from-scratch version was far better, however. It really comes down to
what kind of cook you are – some people don’t consider making cookies
“work”; others do.

In the question of chicken
broth: buy it vs. make it the bottom line is effort. The Recipe.com
editors admit that it takes a lot of time and planning to make chicken
broth from scratch. The cost is less, and taste is clearly better with
homemade broth, so it all comes down to the value you place on time.

There are lots of pancake mixes available in the supermarket, so to
figure out the cost of pancake
mix: buy it vs. make it the Recipe.com editors chose two different
boxed mixes and contrasted them with a fancy pancake recipe and an
ordinary recipe. The conclusion: it’s much cheaper to make pancakes from
scratch, and once you have the ingredients stocked in your pantry, the
effort is almost the same. As for the taste, the editors prefer homemade
over bought because they can be customized to suit their family’s tastes
and needs (whole wheat flour, berries, nuts, etc).

At first, the notion of making
homemade hummus made the editors laugh with disbelief—almost all of
them assumed it would be too labor intensive. But they quickly found
that by using a food processor, you can make hummus in less than 10
minutes, and it costs less than prepackaged hummus. And the taste sealed
the deal: The flavor of homemade was far superior in every way.

For more opinions and advice on grocery shopping, cooking, recipes, and
how to save at your local supermarkets, visit Recipe.com.
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About Recipe.com

Recipe.com, home of the Internet's best-branded recipes, is the first to
tie its award-winning recipes to specials and coupons in local grocery
stores across America. Their pioneering technology gives cooks the power
to select their neighborhood store, check out what’s on special, print
coupons and print, share and rate recipes. Recipe.com’s over 20,000
recipes have professional photos from partners ranging from innovative
chefs to internationally respected food companies to media brands, such
as Better Homes and Gardens, Food & Wine, Fine Cooking, EatingWell,
Vegetarian Times, The Food Channel, Taste of the South, Family
Circle, and Fitness magazine.